The INSIDER Summary:

You can try an over-the-counter earwax removal kit, or a doctor can remove the wax using special tools.

Let's get one thing out of the way: You probably don't need to remove your earwax.

As long as your earwax isn't blocking your ear canal or causing symptoms like hearing problems, you should just leave it alone, says the American Academy of Otolaryngology (AAO). Earwax works as an antifungal and antibacterial agent and it helps move dead skin cells out of the ear, so it's there for a reason.

But there are times when earwax can get out of control. Excessive earwax and earwax blockages happen in about 5% of adults, according to the AAO, so there's a chance it could happen to you.

INSIDER spoke with Mark Vaughan, MD medical director at Auburn Medical Group and creator of viral earwax removal videos, to learn the safest, most effective ways for dislodging wax. Here's what you need to know.

You need to see a blockage to know if it's real.

Unless this is something that happens to you a lot, you probably can't just "feel" that your ear canal is blocked by wax.

"I have a lot of people who come in and say, 'My ear feels blocked,'" Vaughan told INSIDER. "And we look, and there's no wax blocking it. So you really have to look."

You can visit a doctor to get that visual confirmation, but if you have some cash to throw around, you could also buy equipment that lets you peer into your own ear canals. Vaughan recommends the same nifty device he uses in his earwax removal videos: an otoscope that attaches to a smartphone.

Q-tips and ear candling are definite nos.

"The diameter of the Q-tip is greater than half the diameter of the ear canal," Vaughan said. "So any way you stick that in there, there's a portion of the wax that you can't get around. All you can do is push it in." You also might end up injuring your ear canal, he explained.

Ear candling — which uses heat to create a vacuum, literally sucking wax out of your ears — is also not recommended. There's a risk you could end up with hot candle wax on your ear drum.

You need to make sure your ear drum is intact.

Before you or a doctor attempts any kind of earwax removal, there's one crucial thing to check.

"First we have to be absolutely sure that they have an intact eardrum," Vaughan said. "Of course the best way [to know that] is from a previous visit — that's ideal. Next would be not having any history of a known injury to the ear."

A doctor will also want to know if you have "instrumented" you ear. (In other words, have you stuck anything inside it recently?)

"You have to have that [ear] canal intact, because if you're going to be shooting any liquid in there, you don't want it getting into the inner ear and causing an infection, which can be pretty serious." (As a reminder: The inner ear is the innermost part of the ear, way past the eardrum.)

Then the actual removal can begin.

If a doctor determines that your ear drum is intact, then it's time to pull the wax clog out. Vaughan said sometimes he recommends over-the-counter earwax removal kits to patients.

"Some of the names we see quite often are Murine and Debrox," he said. "That stuff works pretty good." These kits include ear drops that soften and loosen wax over the course of a few days. They sometimes come with bulbs that help you shoot warm water into your ear to remove any remaining wax, if necessary.

But in some cases, a doctor will want to remove the wax for you. He or she might want to dig the wax out (gently!) with a small scraping tool called a curette.

"That can sometimes be better [in situations] where you can't see that there's an intact eardrum," Vaughan said.

But if the doctor can't get the wax out gently with a curette, the other effective removal option is irrigation — essentially, shooting water in the ear canal. It can be done with a syringe full of water, or a more high-powered hose-like device. You can see one in action right here.

Yes, it's a little gross. But if your doctor is anything like Vaughan, he or she will probably enjoy the process.

"There's something fun and satisfying about getting that thing out of there," he said. "It's great to be able to do that."